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Olympics

Land O’ Lakes youth runner setting new records

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Elli Black didn’t just win the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic 8K women’s race last month, she also set a major milestone — becoming the youngest winner in the event’s 40-plus year history, at just 11 years old.

The Land O’ Lakes youth clocked 30:57 in the 4.97-mile course to best more than 2,200 female participants in the popular annual race on Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard. The second-place female finisher, St. Petersburg’s Mary Beth Layfield, 37, timed 32:23.

After winning the Gasparilla Classic 8K women’s race, 11-year-old Elli Black poses for a photo with long-distance Olympic medalists Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi. (Courtesy of Jacqueline Black)

On becoming race champion and making history, Black said: “It’s a really big accomplishment and I’m really proud of myself, and I just know that I’ve been very blessed with a God-given talent, and I’m just really happy to be able to use it to the fullest.”

Previously, the event’s youngest winner was 13-year-old Ellie Pleune, who won the race in 2017, with a time of 31:13.

Black had good performances in previous years, too. She placed fifth and seventh female overall the prior two years, respectively.

Her goal this year was to win, of course, and to at least break 32 minutes. Besides just naturally growing stronger and upping her training of late, Black also credited the “perfect” weather conditions, compared to the past couple years when “it was really, really hot.”

The Gasparilla Race award isn’t Black’s only piece of distinguished hardware, and it surely won’t be her last.

The home-schooled sixth-grader recently completed her first year running on the Cambridge Christian high school cross-country team, where she collected All-State honors after winning an individual regional title and placing third overall at the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) Class 1A state girls’ cross-country championships. For the record, her 5K personal best sits at 18:19, set at December’s Jingle Bell Run in Tampa — a race she also won.

Black said her first year running high school cross-country “was actually really fun,” despite competing regularly against much older girls.

Said Black: “Like the girls on my team are basically all high schoolers, but they were really nice and most of the high school girls that I ran against were nice, so it was overall, a really nice experience.”

Black now has her eyes set on the high school track season, where she wants to eclipse the 11-minute mark in the 2-mile. Her current personal record sits at about 11:30.

Elli Black is now gearing up for her first high school track season. She hopes to break the 11-minute mark in the 2-miler.

She also has much bigger long-term goals in sight: “I do want to run in college, and my goal is to run in the 2024 Paris Olympics,” she said.

Cambridge Christian School distance coach Ray Friedman sees the immense potential.

“We may be looking at someone that may one day be on the Olympic stage,” Friedman said of Black, in a recent telephone interview. “I don’t say that lightly, I’m telling ya. She ain’t normal.”

Friedman noted Black’s running style resembles that of some of the world’s greatest runners that come from the East African country Kenya.

“It’s bizarre, but her body and her stride is very Kenyan-like, and I don’t say that flippantly,” the coach explained.

Friedman is no stranger to working with elite-level talents. He’s coached University of Florida distance runner Trevor Foley and Riverview High’s Alyssa Hendrix, the Gatorade State Runner of the Year who’s signed to North Carolina State University, among others. Friedman himself set multiple school records at Gaither High School and La Salle University, and went on to make to the U.S. Triathlon world team.

In the young runner, Friedman simply sees tools that can be molded into future greatness. Friedman observed, “She is extremely determined. She’s very disciplined, and of course, obviously very talented. She has the ‘it’ factor. You can’t learn it. It has to be born.”

Black got an early head start in the endurance sport, compared to most of her similarly aged peers.

Black first started running at just 4 years old, where she would accompany her parents on 1-mile or 2-mile jogs around their former Columbus, Ohio neighborhood. At 6 years old, she competed in her first 5K.

“We’ve always been active runners, so she would always want to run with us,” said Black’s mother, Jacqueline.

The passion for running has stuck with the youth ever since.

Today, Black runs roughly 25 miles per week. She generally runs five days a week, with a cross-training bike or swim workout mixed in, too.

“It’s just really fun,” Black said of running. “It  just makes me really happy to be able to use one of my talents.”

Besides a dedicating training routine, Black comes from an athletic family background.

Her father was a Division I basketball player at Bowling Green State University who went on to play professionally overseas. Her mother played three sports in high school, though none of them track or cross-country.

“We’re obviously very proud of her,” Black’s mother said. “Everybody always tells us how special she is, and we know that’s more than just running. We’re very faith-based, and we know that God has given her this talent…so we’re just extremely proud of all of her accomplishments.”

Published March 4, 2020

Olympic softball legend inspires at Pasco Chamber

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To kick off its 27th annual Business Development Week luncheon, The Greater Pasco Chamber of Commerce brought in a keynote speaker to serve up a different kind of pitch — literally.

It was two-time Olympic softball gold medalist and ESPN lead softball analyst Michele Smith, a Treasure Island resident who has family ties to Pasco County.

Speaking at Spartan Manor in New Port Richey, the softball legend preached a message of perseverance and handling adversity — tying in athletics, broadcasting and the business world.

Two-time Olympic softball gold medalist and ESPN lead softball analyst Michele Smith was the featured guest speaker at a Greater Pasco Chamber of Commerce business luncheon last month. (Kevin Weiss)

Smith is familiar with overcoming setbacks. She suffered a career-threatening injury as a teen, but went on to become one of the most accomplished and recognizable figures in women’s softball.

Smith’s first major hurdle came in July 21, 1986, at 19 years old.

Her father was driving her home from an oral surgeon appointment when a sleeping Smith was thrown from the truck when her car door opened on a turn. She was thrown into a roadside post, chopping off part of her elbow bone and tearing her tricep on her left arm, which severed the muscle and nerve endings in her pitching arm.

At the time, she was coming off a superb freshman year at Oklahoma State and was told by doctors she likely would never pitch.

Smith didn’t accept that diagnosis. She was dead-set on making a comeback.

She put it like this: “I think at 19 I didn’t really realize it and I was a little stubborn. I thought, if I’m never going to pitch again, I’m going to make that decision. I’m certainly going to try to come back from this horrific accident, and so I did.”

Indeed, she made a miraculous recovery.

She was back in the circle in time for her sophomore season, after nine long months of rehab, training and physical therapy. She even returned with greater velocity — adding about 3 mph on her fastball.

“I worked very, very hard to get back,” Smith said. “And, I just kept thinking about this one word —perseverance.”

After the car accident, she had a record-setting career at Oklahoma State. She played professional softball in Japan for 16 years. She was starting pitcher for the gold-medalist U.S. Olympic softball team at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia; and, she was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame.

She put those achievements into perspective.

“When people look at me and think, ‘Wow, as an Olympic athlete, you just must be special and this or that.’ No, I worked really hard, and I overcame a lot, and I loved adversity because it brought out the best in me. It really taught me what I’m able to do and what I’m able to accomplish,” she said.

It turns out her first-ever Olympic softball game was 10 years to the day of the car accident.

During her talk, Smith discussed the importance of perseverance and overcoming adversity, tying in her athletic career to her broadcasting and business ventures. (Courtesy of Michele Smith)

Walking onto that field for the first time, she said, “was just one of the most special things in my life, knowing that you can overcome anything if you put your mind to it, and surround yourself with the right people.”

Smith has leveraged her noteworthy playing career into a very successful and trailblazing  broadcasting career, beginning in 1998 at ESPN. Over the years she has also called games for NBC, CBS Sports Network and TBS, where in 2012 she became the first female broadcaster in history to serve as a commentator for a nationally televised Major League Baseball game.

While the gig is “a lot of fun,” there can be some nerve-wracking moments in live television, Smith said.

“Anything that can go wrong in live television does go wrong,” Smith said, with a chuckle. “A lot of times at home you have no idea that the wheels are falling off the bus.

“I’ve had a lot of very interesting moments as an ESPN analyst, but I do love it,” Smith said.

Learning and memorizing facts and statistics about many teams and new players every year is a challenging aspect of the job.

“It’s a lot of homework, and a lot of studying,” she said.

She also mentioned the increasing popularity of televised women’s softball over the years.

The network has begun broadcasting more college softball in February, in place of some college basketball games, she said.

She also noted that some Women’s College Softball World Series games have been moved to ESPN from alternative ESPN2 because the ratings were exceeding Yankees-Red Sox network game broadcasts.

“Those are big, big monumental moves for our sport, for women’s sports, for girls and women,” she said.

Aside from broadcasting, Smith also has dabbled in commercial real estate. She has purchased and rehabbed old buildings in and around the Treasure Island community.

Smith and her project team have transformed the oldest motel in Treasure Island into a vacation rental property called Sunset Inn & Cottages, rated as the community’s No. 1 hotel by Trip Advisor.

Other projects include turning a former laundromat into an upscale event space in Madeira Beach, and renovating a former St. Petersburg gas station into a craft brewery and BBQ restaurant.

Smith said she takes pride in “taking an old building and making it something where people will come and enjoy themselves, and be able to share very special moments in their lives.”

She encouraged those gathered to take a leap of faith and step outside of their comfort zones, like she did when she took on commercial real estate.

She cited one of her favorite quotes — from LinkedIn co-founder, Reid Hoffman — regarding entrepreneurs and new business owners. He said: “You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.”

Smith added: “A lot of times you have to disrupt the status quo if you want growth.”

Of course, learning the real estate game has had its share of growing pains and can be humbling, too, she said.

“There will be times I’m calling a game on ESPN and then the next morning I’ll be running around plumbing a toilet or something,” she said, laughing.

Published February 12, 2020

Women’s sports museum opens in Wesley Chapel

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Wesley Chapel’s AdventHealth Center Ice is widely known as the training grounds of the gold-medal winning 2018 U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team.

The Women’s Sports Herstory Museum is a virtual museum dedicated to female pioneers in hockey. Located on the second floor of the AdventHealth Center Ice hockey complex, it features interactive wall panel displays where visitors scan QR codes from their phones to view content online; the museum is also decorated with various female hockey memorabilia and equipment. (Kevin Weiss)

Now, the 150,500-square-foot ice sports complex houses what is believed to be the first virtual museum dedicated to women’s hockey trailblazers.

The museum, called the Women’s Sports Herstory Museum, is the brainchild of female hockey coaching legend Digit Murphy and her friend, Jeff Novotny, a Wesley Chapel resident.

Situated in a second-floor viewing room of the ice hockey complex, 3173 Cypress Ridge Blvd., the museum features interactive wall panel displays where visitors scan QR codes to view content online in the form of videos and in-depth stories.

The poster-sized displays highlight several of hockey’s female pioneers, including Katey Stone,  the first-ever female head coach of a USA Hockey team in the Olympics and current head coach at Harvard University; Katie Guay, the first to officiate an NCAA Division I men’s hockey game; Sara DeCosta Hayes, a two-time USA Hockey Women’s Player of the Year; Amanda Pelkey, a 2018 gold medalist and all-time scoring leader at the University of Vermont; and, of course, Murphy, who became the winningest coach in Division I women’s hockey at Brown University.

The room is also decorated with various sports memorabilia and equipment, including a signed jersey and signed pictures of all 23 members of the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team.

At some point, the museum will highlight a “local hero” for women’s sports in the Tampa Bay area.

Women’s Sports Herstory Museum co-curator Digit Murphy speaks at a March 6 VIP event at AdventHealth Center Ice in Wesley Chapel.

“Girls and women need to hear the stories of the women that played before them,” Murphy said, during a March 6 VIP event for the museum. “When girls and women walk through this museum, I want them to see themselves sitting in the seats of the women that came before them. We need our little girls looking in this room going, ‘Oh, I could be a gold medalist…’”

She continued, “It’s really important that people see their heroes and leaders and role models in pictures and stories, because, especially in sports, you see men all the time and you don’t see it for girls.”

The museum — which opened to the public on March 9 — will be housed at Center Ice for the next three years, through a room sponsorship from Murphy’s Play it Forward Sport and United Women’s Sports organizations, which also will award $1,000 scholarships to local female high school seniors.

The concept was born last year after Murphy took a visit to Canton, Ohio, where she discovered — and became irked — that a $100 million expansion was being made in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Murphy recalled the moment: “I’m like, ‘$100 million for football? Unbelievable.’”

Digit Murphy is the winningest coach in Division I women’s hockey at Brown University.

From that, the hockey legend got in touch with Novotny, an engineer, who figured they could develop a platform where museums about women’s sports could be brought to already existing venues.

“I recognize the importance of how it’s important that we celebrate the women in our lives that do special things, so this was an opportunity to kind of do something unique,” said Novotny, who met Murphy years ago at a hockey clinic for one of his daughters.

Novotny then reached out to AdventHealth Center Ice general manager Gordie Zimmermann, who signed off on a virtual museum in his facility.

Zimmermann is pleased with how it turned out.

“This is an inspiring room, for sure,” Zimmermann said, during the VIP event. “We walk by this room constantly and there’s little kids in here hanging on the walls and now they’re going to be looking at the walls instead.

“We’ve always talked about girls hockey and what can we do with girls hockey. There is a place, for sure, in this sport for girls and the future’s so bright for them.”

Meanwhile, the Wesley Chapel location could be just the tip of the iceberg for Murphy and Novotny’s virtual women’s sports museum initiative.

The co-curators hope to expand the project to highlighting women in various other sports in other cities.

Novotny said they’ve even been approached by some universities to create a virtual museum for their alumni female athletes. “It’s scalable to any sport,” he said.

And, Murphy wants to see the virtual museums “everywhere.”

“We want this to be something that goes viral,” she said. “We want more of women’s stories out there, so that Herstory can happen.”

For more information about the museum, visit GetHerStory.com.

Published March 13, 2019

Ten-year-old uses home décor business to pursue Olympic dreams

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In the age of GoFundMe campaigns and other fundraisers — where someone is always seemingly always asking for a handout — 10-year-old Hailey Henderson is using her own hands to try to make her dreams come true.

The Wesley Chapel youth has launched a home decor business — Hailey Brooke Designs  — stamping personalized books for nearly every occasion.

Ten-year-old Hailey Henderson helps pay for her figure skating lessons through her home décor business, Hailey Brooke Designs, where she stamps personalized books. The business started in August after Henderson discovered her talent for crafting with her grandmother. (Courtesy of Melissa Nordholm)

Each sale helps pay for her figure skating lessons at Florida Hospital Center Ice, with her ultimate goal to compete in the Olympics.

Though she’s only been skating for a year, Henderson has experienced almost immediate success.

This past skating season, the Weightman Middle School sixth-grader won two competitions in her division — the 16th annual Labor Day Invitational, in Fort Myers; and, the 2018 Southwest Florida Fall Classic, in Ellenton.

She also earned a second place finish at the 2018 Orange Blossom Open, in Oldsmar.

The rink is Henderson’s happy place.

As she gracefully skates across the ice, she doesn’t have a care in the world.

“You don’t have to think about school, you don’t have to think about homework, you don’t have to think about anything else,” said Henderson, who skates for Champions’ Edge Skating Club, based out of Florida Hospital Center Ice.

“I like doing my jumps because you get a certain feeling where like you’re in the air and it just feels so cool,” she said. “I just love it.”

Hailey Henderson, 10, of Wesley Chapel, last month won first place in the 16th annual Labor Day Invitational, in Fort Myers. She also recently won the 2018 Southwest Florida Fall Classic, in Ellenton. She dreams of competing in the Olympics.

Henderson, however, understands figure skating is an expensive sport.

So, with some help from her mother, Melissa Nordholm, Henderson upcycles books and gathers other materials for the chic creations.

Her items are available on Etsy, an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies.

The business started in August after Henderson discovered her talent for crafting with her grandmother.

Nordholm said her daughter does most of the manual labor.

“She gets to sit there and stamp them all,” Nordholm explained. “The actual design of the books is pretty much independently her.”

The personalized book sets can be customized with family and pet names, as well as favorite quotes and song lyrics.

Henderson has also branched out to specific themes, for occasions such as Halloween and Christmas.

For example, her “Trick or Treat” handmade set comes wrapped with Halloween-colored raffia and a creepy-crawly spider detail.

Henderson’s catalog of items includes a wide assortment of handmade sets, including those themed for all branches of military and law enforcement and firefighters.

Her “Protect and Serve” handmade set, for instance, comes wrapped with natural jute and adorned with a resin police ornament on top.

“It’s just so much fun. It’s like another hobby,” she said.

Her favorite design is the Breast Cancer Awareness themed set.

It’s decorated with a pink awareness ribbon and wrapped in pink raffia, with quotes such as ‘Hope, Courage, Strength,’ ‘Stronger than Cancer’ and ‘I Can and I Will.’

The disease hits close to home to Henderson. Her great-aunt has been battling it for eight years now.

“She’s been fighting breast cancer for quite a long time, so it’s pretty meaningful,” Henderson said, also adding “and I like pink, so it goes together.”

The Wesley Chapel youth continues brainstorming to come up with other book set ideas for the future.

“We’re thinking about doing a Teacher Appreciation one for the teachers and some baking ones, like ‘Bakers Gonna Bake’ or ‘Watch Me Whip,’ because it’s funny,” Henderson said.

Nordholm smiles broadly, as she considers the sacrifices her 10-year-old daughter is making to run her own business. “It’s definitely very heartwarming,” she said.

Watching her daughter in skates, makes her proud, too.

“I love that she’s got that childlike wonder and her dream is to go to the Olympics. I love that she thinks she can achieve it. It definitely makes us feel pretty amazing as parents,” Nordholm said.

So far, most of the book set orders have come from Wesley Chapel and Pasco County, but a handful of orders have come in from other states.

With each order, Henderson writes every customer a handwritten ‘thank-you’ note.

“You are the reasons my dreams are coming true, XOXO Hailey,” each note reads.

To order one of Henderson’s designs, visit Etsy.com, and search for HaileyBrookeDesigns, or visit tinyurl.com/y9wqwjpc.

Published October 10, 2018

Lack of building permits halts work

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Pasco County issued a stop work order at Epperson, after a routine county fire inspection found 19 structures lacked building permits.

A 7.5-acre recreational pool by Crystal Lagoons is being built at Epperson.
(File)

The May 10 inspection came less than two weeks after Epperson kicked off the anticipated opening of the Crystal Lagoons amenity. The festivities, to mark the first development in the United States with this type of amenity, featured an appearance by Michael Phelps, the most decorated athlete in the history of the Olympics.

The massive pool, with a patented technology to keep its waters crystal clear, covers about 7.5 acres at Epperson.

Pasco County building officials were notified of the problem immediately, and the stop work order issued the same day, said Anthony Mastracchio, the county’s deputy building official.

County officials said most of the structures without permits were tiki bars and cabanas.

Representatives of Metro Development Group, which is developing Epperson, met with building officials about the permits on May 14, and permit applications are being pursued, Mastracchio said.

“This is a great project and the county wants it to move forward,” he said.

However, the county will assess penalties by doubling the cost of the permit fees.

Mastracchio said some of the structures weren’t placed on the initial site plan submitted a year ago but Metro Development has provided new drawings which include the structures.

Building inspections, including plumbing and electrical, are done by a private company, which then files reports with the county.

Mastracchio said the county only does the fire inspections.

“Our process actually worked,” he said. “He (fire marshal) alerted us immediately. Our concern is for life safety.”

Metro Development’s president, Greg Singleton, wasn’t available for comment.

Epperson officials did release this statement: “The Crystal Lagoon at Epperson unfortunately did not open as we all hoped on May 19th. Here’s why: This is the first-ever Crystal Lagoon in the United States, and while exciting, that means the review processes are all new, and that is requiring more certifications. We know this is disappointin

g, and we apologize. We are working closely with Pasco County partners, and we appreciate their diligence. Meanwhile, we are doing everything we can to welcome everyone to the lagoon as soon as possible.”

Published June 6, 2018

In Print: Cancer struggle chronicled in unique art exhibit

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It’s on television and the movies all the time, but we don’t ever expect to experience it in real life. A doctor sitting down behind his desk, a grim look on his face, to give you bad news: You have cancer.

Jan Tucker took a unique route to chronicle her struggle with breast cancer, and that record will be on display during an art show to benefit cancer charities in October.
Jan Tucker took a unique route to chronicle her struggle with breast cancer, and that record will be on display during an art show to benefit cancer charities in October. (Photo by B.C. Manion)

Jan Tucker lived that nightmare when she learned she would need a bilateral mastectomy to help battle breast cancer.

“When I picked up the phone, I hear her say, ‘I’m sorry,'” Tucker told reporter B.C. Manion about her conversation with her doctor. “I hear her voice crack. Then she starts with the doctor jargon.”

She knew it would be a difficult journey, and she didn’t want to forget it. So she turned to her brother, Paul Phillips, to help her chronicle it in an amazingly artistic way.

Tucker eventually went through the mastectomy, and later reconstructive surgery, chronicling each step in ceramic torso busts. But she never expected to ever make it public. But she was convinced to do just that, and it will be on display at the Alchemy Art Lounge and Hard Bodies Yo gallery in Tarpon Springs Oct. 9.

“There really is no better way to illustrate the story than that,” Tucker said. “I am a different person today because of this.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit cancer charities. To learn more about Tucker’s struggles with cancer, and to see the artwork that will go on display in a couple weeks, check out this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, or you can read it online for free right now by clicking here.

Every few years, swimming takes the spotlight in the sports world as we cheer on the United States in events like the Olympic games. It’s a lot of hard work, and takes tremendous skill. But it’s doubtful any of those swimmers faced the challenge of one young competitor at Zephyrhills High School.

Taylor Sanders took to the pool recently in Land O’ Lakes, and competed against Sunlake in the 50-meter freestyle. Yet, just weeks before, she spent months in a body cast following surgery to help correct some issues created by cerebral palsy.

In fact, Taylor was never even supposed to walk, let alone swim. But she never let that stop her.

“We had a No. 1 rule. The ‘C’ word was not allowed in our house, and that’s ‘can’t’ or ‘cannot,'” Taylor’s mother, Vanessa Sanders, told reporter Michael Murillo.

“I’ve always loved swimming since I was little,” Taylor said. “And I have a very competitive attitude, so competing while I’m doing something I love is just amazing.”

Fans can see Taylor in action throughout the swimming competitive season for Zephyrhills, and read more about her in this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, which is now available in driveways and stores everywhere. Or you can stay at your computer and check out our free online e-edition by clicking here.

Finally, you might have driven by a bunch of construction on State Road 54 near the Suncoast Parkway and wondered what was up.

Newland Communities, the developer of popular large-scale communities like FishHawk Ranch in Brandon, unveiled details of what it is doing on the Bexley Ranch site, including new retail stores, office space, and some 1,700 homes in its first phase of development.

“We’ve got our plans in review at Pasco County right now, and we think we’ll break ground in March or April next year,” Newland vice president Tom Panaseny told a small crowd who gathered near the work site to learn more about the project. “We haven’t even announced any of the builders yet. But the builders really almost come in last, once we develop the community and figure out what type of homes that we want to build.”

But how much will homes cost there? And what can potential buyers expect from this new community, that will help get Tower Road built east and west across the county? Read reporter Michael Hinman’s story in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, or get all the details right now through our online edition by clicking here.

All of these stories and more can be found in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, available in newsstands throughout east and central Pasco County as well as northern Hillsborough County. Find out what has your community talking this week by getting your local news straight from the only source you need.

If The Laker/Lutz News is not coming to your door, call us to see where you can get your copy at (813) 909-2800, or read our free e-edition by clicking here.

Local man offers spiritual help at Sochi Olympics

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The 2014 Olympics in Sochi may have been half a world away, but a chaplain from Lutz was there, offering spiritual support to athletes.

Scott Hamilton autographed a sign that Asif Shaikh held up at the ‘Today Show’ set at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Shaikh’s wife Leaha saw the sign on television. (Courtesy of Asif Shaikh)
Scott Hamilton autographed a sign that Asif Shaikh held up at the ‘Today Show’ set at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Shaikh’s wife Leaha saw the sign on television. (Courtesy of Asif Shaikh)

Asif Shaikh, who pronounces his name “Ah-sif Shake,” traveled more than 30 hours, with stops in Chicago, Dusselfdorf, Germany, and Moscow before flying over the opening ceremonies to land in Sochi.

But it wasn’t his first Olympic experience. He and his wife Leaha tended to the spiritual needs of athletes at the Olympic games in London in 2012 as well.

This time, however, Shaikh traveled alone to Sochi and said his ministry work there involved prayer and Bible studies with hockey players and speed skaters. One of the athletes he prayed with was Jessica Lutz, a hockey player who was born in the United States, but because her father was born in Switzerland, was able to play on the Swiss team.

Lutz — who pronounces her name the same way as the northern Hillsborough County community — already was familiar to Shaikh.

He and his wife met the hockey player during a summer program they worked at in Colorado in 2009. Shaikh’s wife was Lutz’s advisor.

As it turns out, Shaikh was able to watch Lutz’s Swiss team play against the American team in a contest where the Swiss were soundly defeated. But he also saw Switzerland defeat Sweden in the bronze medal game, where Lutz scored the winning goal.

The idea of interacting with world-class athletes is nothing new for Shaikh. Besides providing spiritual guidance in London, he also had daily chapel gatherings for athletes competing to be part of the American team during the 2012 U.S. Olympic track team trials in Eugene, Ore.

Before that, he was a chaplain to the U.S. soccer team at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and served in the same capacity at the track and field International Association of Athletics Federations World Championship in Daegu, South Korea and the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Because of those experiences, Shaikh is familiar with the types of security precautions taken at international events. Despite reports of potential security threats leading up to the games, Shaikh said he felt completely safe while there. He rated the quality of the security as “off the charts.”

“There was no issue. They were ready,” Shaikh said.

The hotels, however, were another matter. Although he stayed in a private home, Shaikh said media reports about some of the hotels not being ready were true.

The trains, on the other hand, were fantastic and they were beautiful, he said.

While he was able to pray with some athletes, Shaikh said the most important part of his trip this year was making connections for future Olympics. He got to know people involved with the U.S. Olympics Committee and with people within the Procter & Gamble Co., who sponsored the P&G Family Home in Sochi.

There the company offered moms, Olympians and their families a home away from home during the Olympics. It served as a place to hang out and be pampered, he said.

The USA House also served as a gathering place for members of the U.S. Olympics Committee, for Team USA, for corporate partners, sponsors, suppliers and licensees.

Shaikh hopes the connections he made during his time in Sochi will lay the groundwork for him to volunteer his spiritual help at the USA House, the P&G house or both during a future Olympics.

“I’m trying to get established. I think the next step would be, ‘How can I help, in the sense of volunteering my time,’” Shaikh said. “They don’t have any spiritual leaders. They don’t recognize that as something that’s important.”

The chaplain said he’s found that athletes often welcome spiritual support. Many of them travel to the competitions by themselves and some of them are facing personal crises, even as they prepare to compete on a world stage.

Besides praying with athletes in Sochi, Shaikh said he was lucky enough to get free tickets from Procter & Gamble for several events. He was able to watch American skaters Meryl Davis and Charlie White win the gold medal in ice dancing. He also watched bobsled, ski jumping, speed skating, curling and the half-pipe.

While there, Shaikh also had his own fleeting taste of fame. On Valentine’s Day, he went down to the set for NBC’s “Today Show” onsite at the Olympics carrying a sign that Lutz had made for him to hold, wishing his wife a happy Valentine’s Day.

“Scott Hamilton signed an autograph on it and it was on TV,” Shaikh said. “Leaha saw it, so it was really neat.”

In Print: Special Olympics, Sochi Olympics, trauma centers

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America is still taking a breath after a strong performance at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, last month, but locally, people still can’t get enough.

Asif Shaikh, a chaplain from Lutz, once again traveled overseas to take part in the Olympics, serving as a spiritual guide for athletes. It gave him a chance to not only see some of the medal-winning events for Americans, but also gave him a chance to wish his wife, Leaha, a happy Valentine’s Day on national television thanks to NBC’s “Today Show.”

SochiOlympics
Asif Shaikh, a chaplain from Lutz, pretends to hold up the Olympic rings. (Courtesy of Asif Shaikh)

This is his second Olympics, having attended the Summer Games in London in 2012. But while Shaikh provides a service to Olympians, he still must convince the right people to allow him to continue his services at future games.

“I’m trying to get established,” he told reporter B.C. Manion. “I think the next step would be, ‘How can I help, in the sense of volunteering my time.’ They don’t have any spiritual leaders. They don’t recognize that as something that’s important.”

A little closer to home, Wesley Chapel High School hosted the Special Olympics, which brought in hundreds of athletes from around Pasco County and beyond.

“I’m just glad to know that, not only are the parents supporting them, but they are embraced by the community,” Denise Peeks, whose daughter Tiffany competes in the games, told reporter Michael Murillo. “The business community and the volunteers come out and they get so much support that they so desperately need. I think it’s fantastic.”

Both Olympics are all about competition, but the kind of competition taking place between various hospitals in the region is much different. Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point opened a trauma center in 2011, and is now doing everything it can to keep it despite efforts by older trauma centers in Hillsborough County trying to take it away.

Dr. Scott Norwood, who runs Bayonet Point’s facility, says the more trauma centers there are, the better hospitals can treat those in accidents and other mishaps that require specialized care very quickly.

“Trauma is a time-sensitive disease,” Norwood told members of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce recently, as reported by Michael Hinman. “It’s just like heart disease or a heart attack, the quicker you can get to a facility to deal with the problem, the more likely you are to survive. And that’s reflective of what’s happening in Florida right now.”

But existing facilities like Tampa General Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital, see it differently, and feel too many trauma centers will instead be detrimental because it would dilute the quality of care, and the money needed to run the facilities.

Although one state senator has introduced a bill she hopes will address the problems, it looks like the legal battle between all these hospitals fighting for trauma centers will rage on for some time to come.

Finally, for our Zephyrhills and Dade City readers, the East Pasco edition of The Laker takes a unique look at the upcoming Founders’ Day celebration in the City of Pure Water. Michael Murillo has taken a trip into Zephyrhills’ past and shared it in a way only he could in his regular column, “Presenting the Past.”

All of these stories and more can be found in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, available in newsstands throughout east and central Pasco County as well as northern Hillsborough County. Find out what has your community talking this week by getting your local news straight from the only source you need.

If The Laker/Lutz News is not coming to your door, call us to find out where you can get your copy at (813) 909-2800.